"In one interview, she undercut what millions of parents try their best to teach their kids everyday in this country, that winners never cheat and cheaters never win," Tygart said. In an interview with Dan Patrick published in Sports Illustrated, Danica Patrick was asked, if she could take a performance-enhancing drug and not get caught, would she do it if it allowed her to win the Indianapolis 500.

"Well, then it's not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out?" she said.

Dan Patrick responded: "So you would do it?"

Danica's answer: "Yeah, it would be like finding a gray area. In motorsports, we work in the gray areas a lot. You're trying to find where the holes are in the rule book."

Realizing she put her foot in her mouth, Danica tried to backtrack in a hurry yesterday.

"It was a bad joke," she said in an interview that appeared in USA Today. "There is a lot of sensitivity in our culture about (performance-enhancing drugs). With all the baseball stuff, I've followed it and this is a real problem. It's a shame kids think they have to do this to get ahead. It's very dangerous."

Patrick's publicist, Lewis Kay, told The Associated Press that Patrick felt she had "addressed the matter thoroughly with her comments to USA Today."

Copyright 1999-2017 | AutoRacing1 is an
independent internet online publication and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed
by IndyCar, NASCAR, FIA, Sprint, or any other series sponsor.
This material may not be published, broadcast, or redistributed without
permission.